


Pillars (huge Christmas thank you fic!)

by coldphoenix



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 14:49:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13148943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coldphoenix/pseuds/coldphoenix
Summary: A very big thank you fic for all my friends on tumblr. I love you all!





	Pillars (huge Christmas thank you fic!)

**Author's Note:**

> So this is a really big project I’ve been working on for the past week or so… I wanted to get it done in time for Christmas but I ran out of time, so sorry about that :( But um… basically, this is one big thank you XD  
> A couple of weeks ago I was kind of in a bad place, feeling really down etc… and omg… the support I got from everybody on tumblr was overwhelming. Serious, it made me feel - - just - - so much better! Like I really mattered. It was truly amazing, I can’t even express how much. People were sending me nice asks and messages, even people who I don’t even talk to or who are so busy with their own things… They all took the time to make me feel better, and that was just so nice and amazing of them. I wanted to show my gratitude, and this seemed like a nice way to do it. By writing everybody’s OCs lol XD  
> Not everybody has OCs though, or they have OCs that don’t fit into the Demonic Love timeline, or just too many for me to include lol! So in these cases I’ve just referenced people… I wanted to pay a small tribute to everybody in some way. Basically everybody has a few lines each. This fic is so huge because there are really so many people I want to dedicate it to, and I’m just so worried in case I missed somebody! I really hope not.  
> So… yeah. This fic is basically my way of saying a huge thank you to everybody who was there for me when I felt down, and also to the people that always take the time to reblog my work or comment on my posts, or draw for me or just do anything else that’s made tumblr such a nice place to be. I love you all and I appreciate every last one of you. And I know this fic isn’t much, and it can’t express anywhere near how grateful I am to you, but… please just know, I love you. And I hope you like this <3  
> Also… sorry in advance if I wrote anybody OOC… I didn’t want to ask too much about characters because I wanted this to be a surprise ^_^’ I hope I did them okay.
> 
>  
> 
> *I’ve tried to keep everybody’s OCs in individual sections, in case you don’t want to read the entire thing lol XD Message me if you want to know where abouts your tribute is, but for anybody who has icejin OCs, most of them are in the snowball fight.  
> Also, the first couple of paragraphs are mild NSFW, so don’t read those parts if you’re underage or not comfortable with that stuff. And the last scene is a little sad and references that horrible thing with Viola and Marduk, so… just a warning there as well. Other than that, I hope everybody enjoys at least some of this ^_^ Merry Christmas! 
> 
>  
> 
> *Aspen, Nodin and Bassoon belong to @littlepuku.  
> Forte, Helix and Chimes belong to @xchellmoonchild.  
> Bansuri, Bass and Harp belong to @mace-likes-dbz.  
> Ziarra belongs to @zmayi  
> Black-Ice, Kuji, Reiko, Kori, the triplets, Nam, Aryn and Hyo belong to @profoundlytenaciousgalaxy  
> Cuembra belongs to @cuembra28  
> Nellsa (sheep girl) belongs to @krazyokami  
> Tundra belongs to @bluejettyy  
> Zero belongs to @friku8706  
> Mizu belongs to @ask-lizzie-the-vampire  
> Zyma belongs to @astrosaurustyrannus  
> Lemon belongs to @mirurko  
> Velvet belongs to @tirasany  
> Arctico belongs to @lunaticcold  
> Gelid belongs to @the-blueberry-jellyfish  
> Kory belongs to @dat-crazy-nut  
> Bonechill belongs to @captainsealid  
> Makigai belongs to @ask-piccolo-and-saoneru  
> Marduk belongs to @shadowmakerserenity  
> Also thank you to @deadpool4ever, @ellipticalgalaxy1, @akarimarco, @bbbdinabbb, @itsdragon96, @ladytygrycomics, @filthyball, @malarkeyshenanigans, @sillyhepatica. This is dedicated to all of you as well, and I’ve paid a tribute to all of you throughout… I hope you like it. I’m kind of wondering if you can all spot your parts lol XD  
> Thank you to everyone once again! And Merry Christmas! Xxx

‘Busy’ was an understatement. The King Piccolo Mansion, or more specifically, the garden of the King Piccolo Mansion was flooded with guests. All Viola’s friends. She’d asked her parents if she could host a Christmas party at home, and they’d agreed… not expecting her to have this many friends. It wasn’t really a problem… they had plenty of space, and even if Viola had invited a hundred people it wouldn’t have been too crowded. The garden was huge, and this was the perfect day for it. It was a week before Christmas, and the whole area was coated in snow. The pool had frozen over and people were skating on it; snowmen and snow angels were all over the place, and the Mansion had installed outside saunas and steam rooms, hot tubs and heated rocks for the winter… so Frikiza and any other heat-seeking aliens that came here could still enjoy being outside. The staff had set up a stall where they were serving hot food and drinks to the guests… everybody seemed to be having a good time.

Frikiza and King Piccolo were in a steam room alone, their bodies at a temperature that was starting to make King Piccolo uncomfortable. He was shrivelling up… Being dehydrated seemed to affect him much faster than her. Then again… she was immune to heat. Unreasonably so. She was definitely the one with the problem. He leaned back against the wall with his eyes closed and Frikiza between his legs, resting against him. She had no intention of moving anytime soon. Not that he minded much… he liked her being there. He stared down at her, his hands trailing up her thighs. Well… while they were here alone…  
“You can’t be serious.” She smirked. “Anybody could just walk in.”  
“I’ll finish faster if you act scared.” He sniggered, which caused her to laugh.  
“Stop it!” She playfully tapped him with her tail, and smiled up at him. “No.”  
“Come on…” He groaned, pulling her back to sit over his area, demonstrating his eagerness. “I’m half ready.”  
“You’re always half ready.” Frikiza giggled, moving away. “No!”  
“Do you want me to make you?” King Piccolo growled seductively, and grabbed her tail. “Piccolo – no! I’m serious!” Frikiza protested. She blushed and giggled a little when he bit her tail, and made a half-hearted attempt to pull it back. “I’m not playing –”

_Knock knock_. King Piccolo’s heart sank at the sound, and Frikiza laughed. “Too bad.” She smirked up at him, and he glared back. She didn’t have to mock him… _Slide_. The door opened, and in walked Bassoon’s parents, Aspen and Nodin.  
“Oh!” Nodin smiled. “Sorry – I didn’t realise it was occupied.”  
“No problem, there’s plenty of room.” Frikiza beamed, scooching back over to King Piccolo. She positioned herself to cover him… he was wearing a towel around his waist, but still… it wasn’t really appropriate when they had company…  
“Mmm! It’s much warmer in here.” Aspen commented, allowing his wife to guide him to a seat next to her. “I think I’ll stay in here all day…”  
“What planet are you from originally?” Frikiza questioned, which made King Piccolo exhale in annoyance. Great… first these people had interrupted him, and now she was making small talk with them. They were Viola’s friends, not hers! Actually, they weren’t even Viola’s friends… they were her friend’s parents. God dammit. He couldn’t even get up and walk away, not in this condition… although wasn’t the husband blind…? Hmm, well he was the one who King Piccolo didn’t want to be exposed to… the wife was actually pretty cute. Although she would probably scream and make a fuss, and then the husband would try to prove his worth by coming to her rescue. Pff. It all sounded like hassle that King Piccolo wasn’t really in the mood for now. Why couldn’t they pick another steam room? How frustrating. 

Meanwhile, over by the food stall, Bassoon was filling up on hot spiced apple juice. He’d never had it before… Viola’s house always had the best drinks! He was standing with a family of namekians, one of whom was another of Viola’s childhood friends. Bassoon had met the family a few times in his life. He felt comfortable enough to stand with them, but… it was still kind of awkward… was he intruding on family time…?  
“Mama, it’s cold!” The little girl whined as she, her brother and her father built a snowman.  
“Hmm… I don’t think it’s so bad, Harp…” The child’s mother, Bansuri spoke as she sat and watched, holding a baby in her arms. Bassoon didn’t say anything. Harp had a tail… maybe she felt the cold more because she was half mammal. She was shivering a little… should Bassoon say something actually…? Maybe her parents didn’t realise –  
“Here.” Her father, Forte, held up his hand and put an extra layer of clothing on Harp, and she seemed to warm up a little.  
“… This juice is warm.” Bassoon smiled. “It’ll warm you up.” He held his glass out to Harp, who turned her head away.  
“Too hot…” She mumbled.  
“Oh…” Bassoon uttered. Well… how was anyone supposed to make this kid happy then?  
“Well kids, I think we’re done here.” Forte grinned. He stepped back from the finished snowman, admiring his work.  
“Dad, you’re supposed to put clothes on it.” His son, Bass commented.  
“Oh… right.” Forte blinked. He’d forgotten that… he hadn’t made a snowman since he’d visited Viola as a kid. Namek didn’t get snow, and he didn’t really know what he was doing here…  
“Well… how should we dress him?”  
“Can it be a girl?” Harp asked.  
“Sure.” Forte nodded. “How should we dress her?”  
“Let’s make her look like Viola.” Bass grinned.  
“Alright.” Forte laughed. 

He was about to raise his hand and dress the snowwoman, when Bansuri stood up.  
“Hold on.” She shoved the baby into the arms of Helix, a larger namekian who was sitting beside her… that was her father-in-law, right? Bassoon didn’t know Forte’s family very well, but he knew enough to name them. Bansuri approached the snowwoman, and looked at it. “If this is Viola… it’s too tall.” She suddenly and ruthlessly chopped off the snowwoman’s head and a little of the body, causing her family to gasp loudly. She ignored them, and used the chopped off snow to rebuild the snowwoman’s head at a lower height. She was left with excess snow, which she used to make lumps…  
“B-Ban…” Forte sweat dropped, his face turning violet as Bansuri very carefully attached the lumps to the snowwoman’s chest. “It’s just a snowperson… it doesn’t have to be anatomically accurate…”  
“But Viola likes having these.” Bansuri smiled. She gazed at the snowwoman, admiring her handiwork, before nestling her head in the lumps on the snowwoman’s chest, which freaked everybody out a little. Ahh… so soothing… Bansuri closed her eyes, and imagined a heartbeat. In her content state, she was oblivious to the awkward expressions upon her family’s faces as the watched her do… that.  
“… Can we dress it now?” Bass mumbled.  
“Yeah, let’s put something baggy and horrible on it!” Forte raised his hand, to dress the snowwoman in a thick, coarse coat that wasn’t at all comfortable for Bansuri to rub against. In return, she glared at him. Bassoon looked away awkwardly, and went to get more juice. These people were a little odd… and they didn’t even build the snowwoman right. Viola’s boobs were bigger than that… 

Meanwhile, in the hot tubs, a very relaxed female icejin, Ziarra was almost falling asleep. It was so warm in here… too bad the cold air was striking her face from time to time. But, she could fix that… she dove under the water, submerging her entire being in its blissful heat. This was nice… She stayed under for as long as she could, before she felt the need to surface, and then she popped her head out above the water, to see a couple approaching her. An icejin and a namekian… the icejin had an arm missing…  
“Mind if we join you?” The namekian smiled.  
“Go ahead.” Ziarra pulled back her tail, allowing them to step into the tub.  
“Hmmm… that’s better…” The icejin hummed, closing his eyes. “It’s too cold today.”  
“In winter? What a surprise.” The namekian smirked, earning a half-serious glare from his mate. They settled down, and as the icejin, Black-Ice closed his eyes, the namekian, Kuji allowed his gaze to wander around the garden. Viola certainly had a beautiful home… it was very scenic. No wonder his children enjoyed coming here. Absentmindedly, his eyes moved to Ziarra, and he studied her a little. There were a lot of icejins here today… Kuji hadn’t seen many, aside from his own husband and children. It was interesting to see how different they all were, even though none of them were hybrids – not to his knowledge, anyway. This one in particular had very pretty colours… Was that like an ethnicity for them, Kuji wondered…  
“… Hi?” The female spoke cautiously, and Kuji realised he was staring at her a little.  
“Oh – sorry!” He laughed, slightly embarrassed. She must think he was just staring at her in a creepy way. That really wasn’t the case! “You’re very beautiful.” He smiled, attempting to appease her. Not that it came across like that. Whoops. Well… she _was_ beautiful. Black-Ice opened one eye, to watch his partner. What was he doing…?  
“Thank you…” Ziarra spoke. She was starting to feel a little self-conscious… His husband was looking at him – it was his husband, wasn’t it? He certainly seemed bothered by that remark… actually, things were beginning to feel tense… Ziarra certainly wanted no involvement in that. “… It’s very warm in here.” She quickly made her exit excuse and got out of the hot tub, before anything else could be said. She made her way over to a section of heated rocks and lay down, cautiously glancing back to make sure they weren’t looking at her. They weren’t. Good. Who was that guy anyway…? Weren’t they a couple…?

Black-Ice opened both eyes to look at Kuji, and frowned.  
“She is beautiful, isn’t she.” He said flatly.  
“Oh – I didn’t mean that!” Kuji huffed. “I’ve just never seen so many icejins before. They all look so different…”  
“We’re not like namekians.” Black-Ice sniped. “We don’t all look the same.”  
“Now you’re just being racist.” Kuji huffed. “You know I didn’t mean it like that – I’m just fascinated! Don’t be paranoid.”  
“Don’t be a slut.” Black-Ice replied. 

Away from the hot tub, Ziarra was swiftly moving on. She got into a comfortable position on her heated rock, and opened up a comic book. It was an Undertale fan comic, actually. Don’t Have To Hide… She’d only read a couple of pages so far, but she was already hooked. The story was so angsty and eerie, and very well drawn. Ziarra appreciated good comics, and this artist obviously had a lot of talent… and plenty of patience to translate so many wingdings. It was no wonder they had such a huge following; they certainly deserved it. Ziarra’s tail moved to wrap itself around the rock, soaking up its heat as she enjoyed reading in peace. She didn’t even know whose house this was… but she liked it.

Over in a secluded part of the garden, free from most of the distractions, Piccolo Junior and his student Cuembra were engrossed in meditation. Or at least… they _were_. Until Cymbal interrupted them.  
“Hey Junior! Junior! Junior! **Junior**!”  
“Give me chance to respond to the first one!” Piccolo snapped, opening his eyes to glare at his brother.  
“Sorry…” Cymbal said apologetically, briefly looking guilty before Cuembra started giggling. Then he grinned, and pulled a tablet out of the hand-made Christmas sweater he was wearing, and held it up to Junior. “I’ve been checking the blog.”  
“I don’t want to know.” Piccolo sighed, and closed his eyes again. “Leave us alone. We’re busy.”  
“Actually, I’m hungry.” Cuembra said, looking at him. “And cold… can we take a break?”  
“Sure!” Cymbal answered before Piccolo got chance to, pissing his younger brother off once more.  
“Gonna show me what ya got there?” Cuembra beamed, and Cymbal keenly showed her the tablet.  
“It’s our blog.”  
“Oh yeah…” Cuembra uttered, scrolling through the asks, comments and followers’ posts. “Aww… Pic, somebody on here really wants you to have a kid…”  
“They… they do?” Piccolo grunted quietly, his cheeks darkening slightly. “Well… don’t pay any attention to that. It’s just a bunch of crazy fans –”  
“They think you’d make a good dad…”

Cuembra looked at Piccolo Junior, and held the tablet up, allowing him to see the comments made by a very devoted fan. “I mean… based on how you were with Pan and Gohan. They think you’d be the best dad ever.”  
“… Didn’t you say you were hungry?” Piccolo mumbled, looking away. He didn’t know what to say, really… Were people really talking about that…? Sure, he’d thought of it, but… he’d always managed to come up with some reason not to… Did people really think he’d make a good father…? It was different to babysitting…  
“I’ll get something soon.” Cuembra smirked, watching his response. “So? Do you think you ever will have kids? This person really thinks you deserve it –”  
“If you’re not eating then you’re meditating.” Junior barked, cutting her off. Cuembra backed down, and looked at Cymbal, and they smirked at each other, knowing full well that Piccolo had thought about this himself.

Cymbal took the tablet back and started general browsing.  
“Wooow…” He gasped, his eyes lighting up. “Hey!” He shoved the tablet in front of Cuembra’s face, and pointed at the image onscreen. “Look at this! How do I get more of these?”  
“Huh?” Cuembra looked down, to see a very beautiful fanart of Whis. Actually… there was a lot of angel art by this person. It was all stunning… “It’s easy, you just do this.” Cuembra hit the follow button, and smiled at Cymbal. “I didn’t know you were a fan of the angels?”  
“I’m not.” Cymbal shrugged. “I don’t know any angels. Are these angels?”  
“Well… yeah.” Cuembra looked at him. “You didn’t know that?”  
“No.” Cymbal answered. “Should I?”  
“Uh…” Cuembra sweat dropped. “Well… why do you want to see more of them?”  
“Because… this is really beautiful art. I like beautiful art.” Cymbal said. “Don’t need to know who the people are.”  
“Okay…” Cuembra giggled, and patted his head. “Well, you’ll see more beautiful art from now on.”  
“Alright, cool! Thanks.”  
“No problem.” Cuembra stood up. “I’m gonna go find Marshy – you coming, Pic?”  
“No thank you…” Piccolo mumbled. He was still thinking about being a father… were people really talking about how good he’d be…?

Cuembra wandered off, and headed for the Mansion. She found Drum, or ‘Marshy’ as she called him, inside playing a video game. She almost missed him… she’d entered the house in search of him, and just happened to hear noise coming from a room as she passed it. She opened the door and turned on the light, only to be startled by a loud, booming scream.  
“ _ **Aaaaaaa**_!”  
“ _ **Aiiii**_!” Cuembra shrieked and jumped back, immediately taking up a defensive stance. What… what the _hell_? She found Drum sitting there in front of a TV and video game console… he looked terrified. “M-Marshy?” She gasped. “What’s going on? Why were you sitting in the dark?”  
“For… atmosphere.” Drum swallowed, and exhaled. “Sorry… you scared me. I’m playing a scary game. You came in at the worst moment!”  
“Sorry…” Cuembra mumbled. She looked at the TV, to see a dark, scary-looking corridor… the kind that horror games loved to hide monsters in. “… Well… Can I play too?”  
“Uh… yeah. I mean… it’s just one-player, but… you can help. It’s a maze… and monsters keep coming out.”  
“Sounds creepy…” Cuembra uttered. “Don’t you want to play with the light on? It’ll be less scary –”  
“No!” Drum barked. “I want the atmosphere!”  
“Okay.” Cuembra giggled. She turned off the light, and went to sit beside him. As soon as she sat down Drum put his arm around her, and pulled her closer.  
“Stay here.” He mumbled. “This part’s scary.”  
“Okay.” Cuembra smiled, and leaned her head against him. Hmm… he was wearing a Christmas sweater, actually. It was like the one Cymbal had been wearing, made from really nice wool… it was so soft to lean against. “What’s with the clothes?” She asked. “Cymbal had one as well.”  
“Oh – yeah, that sheep girl gave them to us.” Drum answered.  
“Aww. That was nice of her.” Cuembra beamed.  
“Yeah, I guess so…” Drum mumbled reluctantly. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about that sheep… “You ready anyway?”  
“Sure, but – you got any food?”  
“Popcorn and coffee.”  
“… That sounds like a weird combination.”  
“It’s _really_ good coffee.” Drum said.  
“Alright.” Cuembra laughed. “I’ll take your word for it.”

As they were playing, elsewhere in the King Piccolo Mansion Frieza was waking up from a big drinking session. Normally he could handle his alcohol well, to the point that nobody even realised he’d had any, but he’d been going kind of crazy recently… Waking up in the middle of the afternoon was becoming a rather common occurrence for him… Hm. Oh well. He’d been a very established emperor, he deserved some time off. Ugh, but he did feel rough… He staggered through the King Piccolo Mansion like a zombie, loosely carrying a fresh bottle of wine, heading for outside. There was something nice about being in a hot tub in the middle of winter, with cold air around him while he was comfortable in hot water… It made him feel like he had something that other people didn’t, and that was basically what he’d wanted his entire life. These days, little moments like that were the only thing that stopped him losing his grip on the very thin piece of thread he was hanging on by…

He stepped outside, and his face fell. There were… people. Oh Kami, who were all these…? Oh… _crap_! Frieza remembered now. Viola had her party today, didn’t she? Oh, he wasn’t in the mood to be lectured by do-gooders. Most of Viola’s friends were nice, and they didn’t approve of people like him. Which seemed odd, considering Viola had a tendency to only date villains. When it came to boyfriends and platonic friends, she seemed to have very different tastes. Hm… but… maybe Frieza would get lucky and find some of her exes here… She did have a certain appealing taste in men. Her only requirement seemed to be that they were evil or bad. … Frieza was a little more picky than that; he liked them to be good-looking as well… But fortunately, being good-looking herself, Viola did tend to attract a higher class of toys. Some of her exes were very nice indeed. So, there was hope. Frieza made his way through the garden, keeping an eye out for any sinners who wanted to sin. He headed towards the hot tubs, one of which Black-Ice and Kuji were still occupying. Oh, _hell_ no. Not that Black-Ice person, Frieza could not deal with him right now. He sighed, and wandered over to the heat rocks instead. Mm. Now, this was a more pleasant sight. Who was this lady…? A pretty, pale blue icejin female was lying on one of the rocks, reading a magazine. She had another one at her side… Well. This was fate, wasn’t it?  
“Good afternoon.” Frieza smiled, taking a seat on the rock beside her.  
“Oh – hello.” She smiled at him politely. She sort of recognised him… Was this his house…? She was sure she’d caught a glimpse of the homeowner before… but that had looked like a woman? Maybe she’d been mistaken…? Because it had certainly looked like this person…  
“I’m sorry, I seem to have forgotten my book…” Frieza spoke. “Do you mind?”  
“Oh – no, not at all.” Ziarra smiled, handing the spare comic book to him. She was still reading this one, after all. “Just don’t tell me what happens. I haven’t read that one yet.”  
“You’re too kind.” Frieza nodded gratefully, and took the comic. Hmm, now. Time to see what sort of thing she was into. Then he could decide what lines and lies to use to get her to go somewhere private with him and make him feel elated for a short while. Frieza studied the cover of the comic. ‘Unguarded’. Hm. So what was this about, then? He moved his eyes down to the characters on the front. … … _**What**_. Oh, fuck this entirely… He opened his wine bottle, and took a large swig. Normally he drank a little more gracefully, but he had a feeling that he was about to get jealous of a comic version of himself, and he wanted to be drunk enough to forget about it when he did. This was going to be a day of wallowing in self-pity, he could feel it…  
“Alright!”

In another area of the garden, with plenty of snow and space for running around, Viola addressed a large portion of her guests. It was a mix of pureblood icejins and hybrids – most of the hybrids were one family, actually. Reiko, Kori and the triplets were all siblings of Viola’s friend Nam. Nam wasn’t here… she was off building a fort somewhere with her brother, Aryn. Then there was Tundra, and the icejins Zero, Mizu, Zyma, Lemon, Velvet and Arctico. Hmm… that was a lot of players… how to go about this… “Let’s split into teams.” Viola said. “Hybrids versus – oh wait…” She counted the numbers… dammit. With her, there were seven hybrids, but only size full-blooded icejins… That wasn’t fair. “Hold on.” She turned her head to scan the garden for another person to form a team, and spotted Bassoon. “ _ **Bassoon**_!” Viola yelled, causing everyone in the garden to yelp in surprise. “Wanna join in our snowball fight?”  
“Okay!” From his spot by the drinks stall, Bassoon downed his tenth hot spiced apple drink and hurried over to her, wincing as he ran. “But can we do it slowly…? I feel kind of sick…” Ugh. Maybe he shouldn’t have downed the apple juice so quickly… He clasped his hands over his mouth and whimpered a little, glancing at the others. They all looked like they were judging him… were they…? Maybe he was just being paranoid…  
“Alright, that’s better!” Viola grinned. “We’ll split into teams for this, and the winning team gets a million zeni.”  
“What!” Everyone gasped in surprise, their eyes widening.  
“Where… where is the money coming from…?” Lemon asked timidly. They didn’t all have to contribute, did they…?  
“My parents.” Viola shrugged. “A million is like change to them.”  
“That must be why she lives in such a big house.” Mizu whispered to Zero, who was standing beside her.  
“Do you think they’re even richer than your parents…?” Zero whispered back.  
“I heard it’s only her mom who’s rich, actually… her dad’s supposed to be a douche.”

Bassoon shifted uncomfortably; with his namekian hearing he could hear what they were saying about Viola’s parents… should he tell her…? Her dad was a douche, though…  
“But guys, Bassoon doesn’t have a tail, so to make it fair we shouldn’t use our tails.” Viola said, casing everyone else to nod in agreement.  
“I’ll tie mine up!” Arctico beamed, wrapping his tail around his waist as best he could. “Oh – but… now it’s protecting my body…” He looked at Viola. “Is this okay?”  
“I think we should just cut them off.” Viola shrugged.  
“What?” Everyone blinked, and stared at her. What could she possibly…?  
“Viola, _**no**_!” Tundra shrieked. His jaw dropped and he grabbed his horns in desperation, his blood turning ice cold as he watched Viola suddenly take hold of her tail and rip it off with a loud _snap_. _**What the hell**_!  
“ _ **Aaaaaaaa**_!” Tundra and the icejins all screamed at the top of their lungs, their eyes widening as they stared in horror at the torn off limb, that Viola carelessly tossed to the floor. _**What did she just do**_!  
“Oh – oh my god!” Zero gasped, clasping his hands over his face. He started shaking wildly, his breathing growing fast. He felt sick… he felt sick…  
“What’s the matter with her?” Mizu screeched, throwing herself at Zero. The two of them clung to each other, trembling and traumatised. “You never told me your friend was crazy!”  
“She – she isn’t really my friend. I – I don’t know her that well…” Zero stammered. “I… I think our muns are friends…”  
“So why do we have to get dragged into that?” Mizu sobbed, and they squeezed each other tight.  
“Oh gross… gross!” Velvet cried. He was trying his best not to stare at the tail, but he couldn’t help it… “It’s still moving!”  
“Anybody mind if I blow it up…?” Zyma sweat dropped, holding up her hand to dispose of the tail that was freaking everyone out.  
“ _ **Do it**_!” A bunch of traumatised icejins screamed at her.  
“Vi – Vi…” Tundra stammered, trembling. He looked at Viola, trying his best to understand… _this_. “Why did you do that…?”  
“What?” Viola shrugged. “It’s no big deal. Tails will just get in the way for now, we can grow them back after – oh…” She suddenly stopped, when she remembered… icejins couldn’t regenerate, could they? Haha… well, no wonder they all looked so freaked out. “Sorry!” She grinned sheepishly. “I forgot you guys can’t grow yours back.”  
“You… you can…?” Lemon mumbled.  
“Yeah.” Viola nodded, glancing at Bassoon and the other namekian hybrids. “Us namekians can grow back our body parts. So it’s really no big deal to just remove our tails for a while. But, if this is freaking you out, I can grow it back now –”  
“ _ **No**_!” The icejins all screamed, holding their hands up to stop her.  
“No – that’s worse!” Arctico cried. “Just – leave it now! It’s too creepy!”  
“No no, please grow it back!” Tundra begged, wincing at the bloodied stump where Viola’s tail used to be. He didn’t want to spend the whole game looking at that… it was gross! “It looks so painful!”  
“Yeah, it is painful.” Viola nodded. “It really hurts getting your tail ripped off.”

Zero looked at her, confused.  
“So… why did you do it…?”  
“Yeah, I mean… you didn’t scream or anything.” Mizu uttered.  
“Yeah… because I’m not a pussy.” Viola sniggered. “My dad always used to rip off my tail to make me used to pain.” She looked at the icejins. “Your parents never did that kind of thing to you?”  
“No…” A bunch of murmured responses came, from everyone.  
“Now I feel bad for her…” Zero uttered quietly, his heart breaking a little. That didn’t sound nice… her dad sounded like a real bully… Did she really spend her childhood with him torturing her…? Maybe her being so strong was just a front… Zero wished he could fix things for her…  
“Oh. Well, whatever.” Viola concentrated at little, and the icejins all shrieked as a new tail sprouted from the stump. Lemon flinched, while Velvet turned around to hurl.  
“You… you weren’t this gross when we slept together…” Velvet gagged, wiping his mouth.  
“I wasn’t this sober either.” Viola shrugged, causing everyone else to sweat drop. “Anyway! We have even teams now. Hybrids versus purebloods?”  
“Do we have to be labelled like that…?” Tundra mumbled. Viola looked at him.  
“You think it’s offensive?” She asked, surprised.  
“Yeah… a little…”  
“Well… what team names do you want?” Viola asked.  
“Screw team names!” Zyma declared, beating her tail into the ground. “I say we all fight for ourselves! The winner gets a million zeni!”  
“I like that idea.” Kori grinned. “A million zeni sounds nice.”  
“But you would split it with the rest of our family, wouldn’t you…?” Reiko questioned, narrowing her eyes at her brother.  
“Yeah, of course!” Kori gasped. “I’d give it to our parents –”  
“ _ **Snowball fight**_!”  
“ _ **Aaaaa**_!”

Zyma’s voice erupted through the land, followed by the screams of a few startled icejins as she leapt into the air and hurled a snowball twice her size at her peers. They all darted out of the way as best they could, but Lemon and Velvet got struck, squealing as a mound of snow landed on their heads.  
“Aww…” Lemon sighed, wiping off the snow. He’d wanted to last longer than that…  
“That is **so** unfair!” Velvet barked, and glared up at Zyma. “You never gave any warning –” _Splat_! Caught off-guard again, Velvet found himself covered in more snow. He turned his head, to see Lemon standing there sheepishly.  
“Sorry… I just wanted to throw one…” Lemon mumbled.  
“Humph!” Velvet pouted, and folded his arms. “Screw this BS! I’m going for some me time!” He stormed off in a sulk, heading for the heat rocks. These people were so not his scene! 

As the rest pf the snowball fighters raced around the garden, ducking and diving away from each other’s attacks, Velvet placed himself down on a heat rock next to an older icejin reading a comic book. Hm… he seemed kind of upset… He had an empty wine bottle on the floor beside him, and another in his hand… he was drinking out of it desperately, as he turned the pages in the comic book, wincing at whatever he read. Hmm… it was too bad he looked at little unstable… he was pretty hot. “… Are you okay?” Velvet questioned. The icejin, Frieza, looked up at him, and sighed.  
“Do you have _any_ idea what it’s like to read about how great you once were?” He hissed. “Do you know what it’s like to be jealous of a _fan comic’s_ version of yourself? To want to trade places with a version of yourself portrayed by someone who spends their time drawing anime fanart?”  
“… No?” Velvet blinked.  
“No. I thought not.” Frieza took another swig of his wine, and looked Velvet up and down. Hm… not bad. He was well groomed, and he seemed sassy enough to be fun but not threatening at all… Yes, he would do. This female beside him seemed like she’d be hard work anyway. “Well it makes you want to have distraction sex. Are you available?”  
“Um…” Velvet sweat dropped, and moved his eyes to the empty wine bottle on the floor, and the half full one in Frieza’s hand. “Are you drunk…?”  
“No. I have a high tolerance.” Frieza replied, and held the wine bottle out to him. “But if it makes you feel better, you can finish this.”  
“… Fine by me.” Velvet grinned. He took the wine bottle, and they flew off to somewhere more private, leaving the comic book unguarded on the rock.

Just as they were flying away, an icejin, Gelid, looked over from their position in one of the hot tubs. They felt better now that Frieza was gone… they didn’t know him, but he seemed to be drinking a lot. Gelid hadn’t dared go near him in case he said something weird. Hmm… but he’d left his comic book… Was he planning on coming back to it? He wouldn’t mind if Gelid read it in the meantime, would he…? Curiously, Gelid made their way out of the comfortable warmth of the hot tub, and took Frieza’s seat on the heat rock. Ahhh, this was nice and warm as well…  
“Oh, is he finished with it?” A female voice came from Gelid’s side. They looked over, to see Ziarra gesturing towards the comic book. “He’s gone, right?”  
“Yeah… was he going to lend this to you?” Gelid questioned. Ziarra giggled.  
“Lend it? It’s mine. I just finished this one.” She held out Don’t Have To Hide, and smiled. “You can read it if you want – just give me that one.”  
“Uh…” Gelid looked at Don’t Have To Hide’s cover. Undertale…? They weren’t really into Undertale… Maybe they’d go ice skating instead. Gelid had wanted to do that ever since they’d arrived. “It’s okay. Thanks, though.” They handed Unguarded back to her, and smiled. “Enjoy!”  
“Thanks.” Ziarra smiled back, and watched as Gelid made their way over to the frozen over pool. Hm. They seemed nice. Ziarra lay back down on her rock, and opened Unguarded. 

Meanwhile, while Gelid skated and Ziarra started her second comic book, Piccolo Junior had finally given in and was scrolling through the King Piccolo Mansion’s blog. Actually, somebody had caught his eye… it was that girl again. The one who had always been so respectful to him, and given him water as a gift… She was nice. Piccolo liked her… He wasn’t sure what that meant, but he was interested to see her updates. Hmmm… she’d made salmon soup. … He liked salmon soup. Hers looked nice… Would she make it for him, he wondered. How would he even go about asking that…?  
“What are you looking at?” Cymbal grinned, noticing a small smile appear on Piccolo’s face.  
“Uh – nothing.” Piccolo quickly scrolled away from her, as Cymbal leaned over his shoulder to look at the tablet. Honestly, Piccolo wasn’t even paying attention to what he’d scrolled to, but it caught Cymbal’s eye.  
“Ha! It’s that AU person!” He grinned.  
“Uh… what?” Piccolo blinked.  
“Y’know, the one that paired you with Dende and gave you all those kids.” Cymbal said, pointing to the blog onscreen. Piccolo looked down at it, and sweat dropped. Oh… right. This person did pretty good art of him actually; Piccolo liked the way she drew him. But… pairing him with Dende… Piccolo didn’t know if that was degrading to Dende, or flattering to him. The children seemed like nice enough OCs, but… “Wouldn’t you ever hook up with Dende?” Cymbal questioned, scrolling curiously through the fanart. “Looks like you’d make a nice couple.”  
“What – don’t talk about him like that!” Piccolo snapped. “He’s Kami!”  
“Yeah, exactly.” Cymbal sniggered. “If anything he’d be like the best trophy fuck –”  
“Stop!” Piccolo barked, his face turning violet. “Don’t talk about him that way!”  
“Why not? Sex isn’t a bad thing.” Cymbal shrugged. “And banging Kami, that’s a pretty cool thing to say you’ve done –”  
“ _ **Enough**_!” Piccolo Junior stood up, ready to walk away. “I’m done with this crap!”  
“If you don’t think you’d be good enough for Kami, you can practice on that girl that gave you water first.” Cymbal said, not noticing two icejins stopping only a few feet away. They were readying to go head-to-head… “Or the person that wants you to have a baby –” _splat_! He suddenly found himself silenced by a snowball in his face. Cymbal exhaled angrily, and looked up to see an embarrassed looking Arctico staring at him apologetically.  
“Sorry…” Arctico uttered. “I wanted to hit Zyma but she dodged…”  
“Too bad.” Zyma grinned, and threw a snowball at him, hitting him while he was still apologising to Cymbal.  
“What!” Arctico glared at her. “I wasn’t ready!”  
“Pff. It’s a fight for a million zeni, you should pay attention.” Zyma scolded, her tail waving in annoyance behind her. Jeez, why weren’t these people concentrating…? “But fine… that one won’t count. How about that?”  
“Okay!” Arctico grinned, and they flew off to resume their battle elsewhere. Piccolo took the opportunity to get away from Cymbal and his ridiculous comments. 

Elsewhere in the garden, the hybrids Nam and Aryn were building a fort with their new friend, another one of Viola’s guests, Kory, while Hyo sat back with a cup of hot cocoa and watched.  
“Almost ready!” Kory grinned excitedly, as he carefully ran his finger along the edge of the fort’s entrance, smoothing it out.  
“Looking good.” Hyo commented.  
“After this we’ll build snow guards – oh! And a moat! Let’s do a moat!” Kory moved away from the fort and began running along the outside of it, making a large groove in the snow with his tail.  
“If we’re making snow guards, we should look the part as well.” Nam commented. She pointed her hands at herself and Aryn, dressing them in battle armour just as Kory came running round the corner of the fort. He stopped dead in his tracks, stunned.  
“What… how did you do that?” He gasped. “Are you a witch?”  
“No.” Nam giggled. “Namekians can make clothes. Watch.” She held her hand up to him, and armour began to materialise over his clothing. Kory stared down at the armour, and looked back at her with wide eyes.  
“That’s… so cool!” He grinned. “Do something else!”  
“It takes energy to do that.” Aryn commented. “We shouldn’t do it too often.”  
“I haven’t used much energy today.” Hyo smiled. “I can dress you in something –” _Splash_. Out of nowhere, he felt the soft coldness of snow on his hand, and he looked down to see his mug of cocoa very quickly becoming contaminated with sloppy icy water. “What the hell!”  
“Sorry, Hyo!” Viola’s voice came from somewhere above him, moving further away by the second as she flew past. _Dammit_! He knew that snowball fight would get out of hand! 

Meanwhile, back in the house, Drum and Cuembra were clinging to each other tightly, trembling as they stared at the TV screen.  
“I… I have to open the door.” Drum uttered. He knew he had to. There was nowhere else to go. He wouldn’t be able to continue the game if he didn’t…  
“It’s going to be scary.” Cuembra whimpered. “Marshy, I can hear it…” She bit her lip, listening to the sound of eerie moans coming from behind the door. What was it…?  
“Yeah I know. I just… let’s count to three, okay?”  
“K.” Cuembra nodded.  
“Okay.” Drum exhaled. “One…”  
“Two…”

_Click_.  
“ _ **Aaaaaaaa**_!” Drum and Cuembra both screamed at the top of their lungs, leaping onto their feet when the light suddenly came on. In the open doorway, the icejin Bonechill was staring at them in confusion. What was going on…? Why did they look so scared…?  
“What… what’s your problem!” Drum barked.  
“What’s yours?” Bonechill frowned. He looked at the TV, and realised they were playing a scary video game. “Oh… haha.” He smirked calmly, attempting to make himself look brave, even though he probably would have been terrified himself. “Don’t tell me you were scared?”  
“No!” Drum huffed.  
“We weren’t scared… we were just into it.” Cuembra said.  
“Same thing.” Bonechill spoke. “Well, uh… listen. Do you guys play Pokemon?” He held up his DS, with a Pokemon Ultra Sun cartridge inserted. “It’s the latest game… I don’t want to brag, but… I’m pretty good at it. I’m somewhat of a master now, you know.”  
“So what?” Drum frowned. “You want to trade or something?”  
“Well…” Bonechill tried to remain calm, despite the fact that his excitement was growing. He hadn’t tried trading yet… he wasn’t that far into the game, actually. If he could get some cool pokemon off Drum, this would be the best Christmas ever! “I guess we could, if you want.” He spoke as casually as he could. “You got Ultra Moon?”  
“Yeah, I do.” Drum nodded. “What pokemon do you have?”  
“Well… uh…” Bonechill’s cheeks started to darken, as he became flustered. He didn’t have many… “What – what do you have?” He demanded, stammering slightly under his nerves.  
“I dunno, I forget the names… hold on.” Drum reached into his pants and pulled out his DS, which made Cumebra’s eyebrows raise in surprise.  
“Do you always carry it with you, Marshy?” She asked.  
“Sure.” Drum nodded. “I mean… you never know when you’re going to find a trade partner.”  
“What about online trading…?”  
“Well yeah, that’s okay, but… it’s nicer to do it in person.” Drum shrugged. “You don’t know what kind of weirdos you’ll meet online.”  
“Alright…”

Drum sat down, and gestured for Bonechill to sit next to him.  
“You want a coffee?” He offered.  
“No thanks…” Bonechill sat down beside him, and the two of them began comparing Pokemon.  
“What do you think of this one anyway?” Drum questioned. “You played the original Sun and Moon?”  
“Yeah, this one’s a lot better.” Bonechill nodded. “Feels more complete, y’know?”  
“Yeah, I totally agree with you.” Drum took a sip of his coffee, and noticed Bonechill’s tail out of the corner of his eye. Wow… that was long. And kind of different looking… It was like he was part skeleton. “Your tail’s cool.” He commented.  
“Oh…” Bonechill blushed slightly, becoming self-conscious. He lowered his tail, and kept his focus on his game. “Thanks…”  
“You kind of look like a pokemon yourself…”  
“… Shut up.” Bonechill growled. Jerk…

Elsewhere, in a secluded part of the garden, Piccolo Junior was finally getting back to meditating when he was disturbed once more. Dammit… what now? He felt a warm ki approaching him; he didn’t recognise it, but it didn’t feel intimidating at all…  
“Hey Piccolo!” A friendly voice addressed him, and Piccolo turned his head to see a blue namekian standing there, smiling at him brightly. Hmm… actually… was this guy drunk? He seemed sort of giddy, and his cheeks were a little violet… “I didn’t know you’d be here!” The namekian approached him, his eyes brightening more the closer he got. Odd… This person clearly knew Piccolo, but Piccolo didn’t recognise him – and he would certainly remember meeting a blue namekian. What was going on…?  
“Of course I’d be here. This is my family’s house.” Piccolo frowned, watching as the namekian sat down beside him. “Do I know you…?”  
“Huh…?” The namekian looked at him, and he seemed saddened suddenly. “Piccolo… that’s not funny.” He sobbed. “You shouldn’t kiss somebody and then pretend you don’t know them… I think I really love you, you know…”  
“Wha – _kiss_!” Piccolo cried. “Oh – no, no! No, you’ve got the wrong –” … Oh… wait. Actually… now that he thought of it… he _did_ recognise this guy… but it wasn’t from meeting him. It was from seeing him on the blog. This guy’s name was Makigai, he was from an AU where he and Piccolo were… … Oh. Oh… no! “No!” Piccolo gasped. “Look – Makigai! Listen to me, I’m not your –”  
“Aaaa, I knew you’d remember me!” Makigai grinned, his face lighting up one more. “You were just teasing me, weren’t you? But still… that was mean, Piccolo.” He looked at Piccolo, and his eyes tinkled darkly as a mischievous smirk formed upon his lips. “Don’t worry, though. I’ll let you make it up to me…”  
“No!” Piccolo shrieked. “Makigai, you don’t understand! I’m not your Piccolo! I’m from a different uni –” He was suddenly cut off by Makigai’s lips on his, and his eyes almost popped out of his skull. _**No**_! No no no! _**This was terrible**_! He frantically pulled away, and furiously wiped his mouth. Oh, **Kami**! Why! Why had that just happened? Why had he come to this ridiculous party anyway? Nothing good _ever_ came out of him being anywhere near his family or this mansion! Why did he bother with them? Why hadn’t he just stayed on the Lookout? Why - - … why did this guy taste like apple and cinnamon? … Had he gotten drunk off the hot drinks stall…?  
“Hmm…” Makigai frowned, licking his lips. Something was off… “Piccolo… you feel different.” He studied Piccolo for a long moment, trying to place what was wrong… and then, he gasped. “Oh!” Makigai’s face turned bright purple, and he suddenly became flustered as he realised what was going on. “Oh – oh! You’re – you’re not my Piccolo, are you? You’re – you’re Viola’s Piccolo!”  
“Yes…” Piccolo seethed. “Why wouldn’t I be Viola’s Piccolo? This is Viola’s house!”  
“I – I didn’t know that!” Makigai protested, innocently holding up his hands. “I just got written in here, and I didn’t recognise anybody, and then these ladies offered me some juice and I started to feel really happy…” He bit his lip, and looked at Piccolo guilty. “I’m so sorry…”  
“It’s fine.” Piccolo muttered, looking away. “Just – let me meditate in peace.”  
“But I’m sooooo sorry –”  
“Makigai it’s fine! Now shut up!” Piccolo yelled, making Makigai feel even worse. 

All around them, the festivities continued. Across the large, spacious garden of the King Piccolo Mansion, Viola, her family and guests were all having a good time. Food and drinks were being keenly enjoyed; the snowball fight seemed to be getting a new player for every one that was lost. People were building snowmen, skating on the pool, lounging in the hot tubs, or in the saunas, or on heat rocks. Everybody was making plenty of noise between them, but all in good spirits and good fun. A merry, pleasant atmosphere was coating the King Piccolo Mansion… in perfect contrast to the atmosphere in the woods.

All alone, away from the laughter, the games, the festivities, an elf stood out in the cold, surrounded by nothing except silence and a seemingly endless sea of trees. Leafless, dead trees. … It seemed fitting. He stared down at the ground, at a spot he had visited only a few times before. It seemed appropriate to visit now. He gazed into the snow-coated earth, his face solemn, his breathing slowed. He was visiting something. Something that probably wasn’t even here anymore. Beneath the snow, beneath the soil, inside the earth… would there be any trace of it now? How long would it have taken to fade…? … Did Viola ever come here? Just to stand, like this? Or did she pretend it hadn’t happened? … Did she think about it sometimes? At Christmas, when all her thoughts were supposed to be happy, and hopeful… did she ever stop to think about the worst moment of her life…? … He hoped not. Or at least, he would hope not, if he was a decent enough person. But Marduk the elf wasn’t. He hoped she was hurting, because he was. It would be annoying to him if he was the only one. So… he hoped she was sad. He hoped she lost sleep sometimes. He hoped she had nightmares. He hoped… plenty of things, really. Stupid, senseless things. 

He exhaled, and knelt down above the spot, and ever so lightly brushed his hand upon it. Just to brush back a little of the snow, to expose the ground underneath. Then he reached into his pocket, and pulled out the smallest tribute he could find. A tiny silver keyring, with a teddy bear upon it. It was so small, and it hadn’t cost much… but Marduk had felt strange not bringing anything at all. Not as strange as he felt now though, placing it on the ground. He felt foolish. Embarrassed. … But still, he covered the keyring with snow, and he hoped that if anything was still here, it would enjoy looking at this. … Hm. Stupid. Marduk rose to his feet, and allowed his eyes to rest on the spot for a moment more, before he walked away.


End file.
